Those who are perpetually in prayer (70:23)
When you are in any state whatever, celestial or terrestrial, you are necessarily under the rule of one of the divine names, whether you know it or not, whether you contemplate it or not. It is this name that rules your movement and your rest; it is through it that you have the status of possible, or that of existent. And this name says: I am God. And it speaks the truth. But it is mandatory that you reply: Allahu akbar!... Know, with absolute certainty, that the Divine Essence never shows itself to you as itself, but only under the form of one of its eminent attributes; and know that you will never know the meaning of the name Allah. (Tanazzulat, p.63)
The Most High has called you for intimate talk with you, the Munificent has called you to pour out his gifts upon you. Be then humble and poor. Raise your hands in recitation of the takbir each time that you lower yourself or that you stand up again and throw behind yourself what has been given to you in each theophany... Place in your purse what you have received and claim another gift and a greater light still, for it does not cease to shine. Divine effusion perpetually emanates from the spring of his generosity. Welcome it in that indefeasible indigence of being that remains attached to you when you contemplate him. He does not cease to give, nor you to amass. He does not stop elevating himself, nor you lowering yourself. (Tanazzulat, p.92)
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It is in your fall that your elevation comes, and it is in your earth that your heaven is found. (Tanazzulat, p.103)
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It is His name, Al-Qarib, "He Who Is Close," which has called you to proximity. You are the lover and not the beloved, which is why he says: [prostrate yourself] and come closer (96:19). If you were the beloved, he would say: [prostrate yourself] you are close... Know that in your prostration you are preserved (ma'sum) from Satan, for your prostration subjugates him and he has no power over you. When he observes you in this state, he thinks only of himself [and of his own refusal to prostrate himself before Adam (peace be upon him) as God had commanded; consumed by the fire in the citadel of his punishment, seeing you obedient and contemplating the fate that awaits him the day when the Hour of Judgment comes... May God grant that we be, you and I, among those who have prostrated themselves and who have found [mimman sajada wa wajada]. (Tanazzulat, p.104-105)
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Then greet, with a salutation which comes from God, yourself and all the beings of your species, for salaam [the greeting, but also Peace, one of the divine names] is your Lord and the degree of the name Al-Salaam is the place of your theophany [at this specific moment]. Finally, affirm the unicity of the One and deny that there are equals to him [an allusion to the words of the shahaada at the end of tashahhud]. And then you will need to disappear, for it is in this disappearance that you will obtain what you desired. (Tanazzulat, p.63)
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In prayer there are two categories of Muslims and thus two ways of performing prayer. Those who unite the one with the other are joining together the spiritual realities that correspond to each.
The higher of these categories is that of the worshipper who says salaam because he has passed [at the moment he comes out of prayer] from the authority of one name to the authority of another. He is thus greeting the one he is leaving and the one to which he is arriving...
The lesser category is that of the worshipper who greets the All-Merciful because he is leaving him, and the creatures because he is returning toward them...
As for those who belong to neither of these two categories, their salaam is worthless: they were not near God, and their greeting is thus not the greeting of one who is departing. They never left the creatures, and thus their greeting is not the greeting of one newly arrived. (Tanazzulat, p.110, Futuhat vol.1, p.441)
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The Theophany of Perfection (Ibn 'Arabi)
Oh, my beloved! How many times I have called you without your hearing Me!
How many times I have shown myself without you looking at Me!
How many times I have become perfume without your inhaling Me!
How many times I have become food without your tasting Me!
How is it that you do not smell Me in what you breathe?
How do you not see Me, not hear Me?
I am more delicious than anything delicious,
More desirable that anything desirable,
More perfect than anything perfect.
I am Beauty and Grace!
Love Me and love nothing else
Desire Me
Let Me be your sole concern to the exclusion of all concerns!
- Ibn Arabi, An Ocean Without Shore [Translated by Michel Chodkiewicz (with explanations)]

As for him who fears to stand before his Lord and restrains the ego its desires, the Garden is shelter.(The Snatchers:40)

Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, "The Fire is surrounded by all kinds of desires and passions, while Paradise is surrounded by all kinds of disliked, undesirable things."(Bukhari)

Whoever does good at night is rewarded during the day and whoever does good during the day is rewarded at night. Whoever is sincere in abandoning a desire is saved from catering to it. God is too noble to punish a heart that has abandoned a desire for His sake.(Abu Sulayman ad-Darani)

Beware of your ego, and trust not its mischief; The ego is worse than seventy devils. (Arabic Poem)

I seek God's forgiveness, and do not claim that my intention in producing this Blog is confined to good religious purposes; how may I do so when I am aware of the hidden desires,
egotistic passions, and worldly wishes that I harbour?
I do not claim innocence for myself; the ego is indeed an inciter to evil, save when my Lord shows mercy; my Lord is indeed Forgiving, Merciful.
O God! I seek Your protection against my committing idolatry [shirk] knowingly, and Your forgiveness for that of which I am not aware!
I ask God to make me and all other believers benefit from this Blog and to render my production of it purely for the sake of His Noble Countenance.